Saint Petersburg, Russia – Aoife Cotter

” Dobro pažálovat’ “

Hello and welcome to the week’s last blog post; I hope you all have thoroughly enjoyed perusing through this week’s batch of posts!

Last week I examined the regeneration of London after The Great Fire of 1666, this week I have decided to explore the main thoroughfare of the city of Saint Petersburg, Russia; circa the early 20^th century. I hope the post will give you a better understanding of main street urban infrastructure as an important public space during this period.

Aoife Cotter | 112495138

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Today, Saint Petersburg is filled with rich history and culture, an unusual feat for such a young city of just three hundred years old. The city itself is built upon the banks of the Neva River. Founded in 1703 by Tsar Peter the Great (1682-1721) as his capital; the city remained the capital of the Russian Empire until the Russian Revolution of 1917.

In the late 19th century, Saint Petersburg was thriving. As capital, it was home to state officials, the military garrison and the imperial court. Its unique and dramatic architecture was the equal of any other European city of the time. Buildings such as the Winter Palace now known as the State Hermitage Museum, were representative of a lavish and thriving capital. Saint Petersburg was fast becoming a capitalist city. The effects of industrialization were evident as foreign and national factories grew rapidly within the city’s environs and banks and various other companies made Saint Petersburg their home.

Map 1.1 – Johann Baptiste Hommann’s map of Saint Petersburg circa 1720.
This map depicts the development of the city which was created fifteen years earlier.

The Nevsky Prospect was created at Peter the Great’s behest as the boulevard which would be the main artery to the ancient city of Novgorod but quite quickly became the main street of the city, a city named in honor of Saint Peter. The street itself was named after a 13th century war hero, Alexander Nevsky. Saint Petersburg’s main shops and businesses are located on and around this grand thoroughfare. The Nevsky Prospect, from humble beginnings, has now become Peter’s lasting legacy to the city’s physical infrastructure and its people.

Image 1.1 – The Nevsky Prospect, 1912. This digitalized photograph clearly illustrates the bustling main street and demonstrates Saint Petersburg’s citizens’ use of the Nevsky Prospect in their daily lives.

The Nevsky Prospect continued to evolve throughout the years. In the early years of the 20th Century, the addition of a public light infrastructure and improvements to accessibility, such as new bridges over Neva River, made the Nevsky Prospect a more inviting and accessible public space. In addition to the Winter Palace, the Prospect is home to some outstanding architectural and imposing buildings such as the Kazan Cathedral, the Gostiny Dvor building and The Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood which was completed in 1907.

Image 1.2 – A vintage postcard from 1906 illustrates a view of the Winter Palace from the corner of the Nevsky Prospect. This image represents just one of many architectural and historical sites which are situated on the Prospect.

These landmarks enhance the overall experience of the Prospect, they complement the existing buildings of the street  which are uniform in nature.

“In the words of the poet Piotr Viazemsky, “slender, regular, aligned, symmetrical, single-colored…””

Image 1. 3 – The Nevsky Prospect; circa 1910. This image clearly illustrates the Prospects success and popularity as a main street in the early 20th century and demonstrates the uniformity of the streetscape architecture.

Today, the Nevsky Prospect still exists; it is the city’s central shopping street and the hub of the city’s entertainment and nightlife. It still possesses the same function, it did in the centuries before; acting as a place of promenade for citizens and tourists alike.

“‘Public space’’ is the space where individuals see and are seen by others as
they engage in public affairs” – (James Mensch, 2007)

While the Nevsky Prospect is not a public place of recreation, it is a public space of importance and innovation as a functioning main street. In the late 19th and 20th centuries, it was the city’s central hub of activity, a space that allowed business and trades to thrive. Its significance and success as a crucial urban structure is supported by historic photographic evidence, some of which is included above.

Image 1.4 – The Nevsky Prospect circa the early 1990’s. This image is yet again another representation of the avenues success in the early 20th century.

Image 1.5 – The Nevsky Prospect; modern day. Its function in society has not changed since its foundation.

While, the other contributors to this blog have examined various other processes which occurred in cities throughout the 19th and 20th century.  I firmly believe in the importance of public space. The utilization of public spaces has been established for centuries and many historic public spaces continue to act as hubs of activity in today’s society. The Nevsky Prospect is a perfect example of such a functional public space; it provides both a platform and focus for the city’s daily operations and interactions and facilitates its citizens and tourists alike.

And with that concluding sentence, I bring this week’s blog posts to a close.

Be sure to stay tuned for next week’s blog!

From Russia with love,

Aoife

Bibliography

The Facts of Saint Petersburg – Available at: http://www.saint-petersburg.com/quick-facts.asp[Accessed 21st October 2014]

Saint Petersburg History – Available at: http://www.saint-petersburg.com/history/introduction.asp [Accessed 21^st October 2014]

Saint Petersburg History – Available at: http://saint-petersburg-russia.org/st-petersburg-19th-century [Accessed 21^st October 2014]

Nevsky History – Available at:http://nskrip1.blogspot.ie/2012/11/the-history-of-nevsky-prospect-in-st.html [Accessed 21^st October 2014]

1720 Map – Available at: http://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/31239/Topographische_Vorstellung_der_Neuen_Russischen_HauptResidenz_und/Homann.html [Accessed 21^st October 1014]

“Public Space” James Mensch 2007-03-01o Continental Philosophy Review

Available at: http://0-link.springer.com.library.ucc.ie/article/10.1007/s11007-006-9038-x [Accessed 21st October 2014]

Concluding This Week’s Blog Posts – 7th of November 2014

Well That’s a Wrap Folks!

Thank you all once again for tuning into this week’s installment of posts! We hope you all enjoyed taking some time out to explore some examples of cities of the past with us this week.

As urban geographers, we love exploring cities; both in their past and present forms, this week we explored six individual case study cities; through our looking glass of digitalized photographs. Exploring the past is an exciting prospect for most but exploring the experiences and practices of the cities of the 19^th and 20^th centuries was an opportunity that we could not miss out on! We hope you enjoyed reading these blog as much as we had creating them!

If you have any questions do not hesitate to drop us an email and we will get back to you as soon as we possibly can!

Again, if you like what you see, click on this link to our twitter page where we promise to let you all know what is happening with us and the blog through our regular updates, and we even provide the possibility of learning something new from our #DidYouKnow tweets!

Lastly, we have added a new section to our blog where you can download our posts in an ePub format; please check these out for reading on the go.

Until we click again,

Aoife, Katie O, Jennifer, Donna, Katie M & Pierre

We love hearing back from our readers; be it through comments or your emails. Receiving feedback really does make our day so we’ve decided to include a weekly poll too!  Any feedback you have don’t be afraid to let us know!

THE CITY OF LIGHT AND ITS BOULEVARDS – Jennifer Egan

Bonjour et Bienvenue!

“You can’t escape the past in Paris, and yet what’s so wonderful about it is that the past and present intermingle so intangibly that it doesn’t seem to burden.” -Allen Ginsberg

For this week’s blog entry, I’ve decided to be self-indulgent and use it as an excuse to learn more about, and to then share with you, my favourite city, Paris. To date, I’ve been lucky enough to see some awe-inducing parts of the world, but none are quite like the French capital of Paris that has been hollowed and re-fashioned by history. As one walks through her boulevards, you’re captivated by something new at every corner, but it’s the seamless juxtaposition between the old and new that is most brilliant.

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This week I shall be focusing on the modernizing of Paris during the Age of Enlightenment. I intend on doing this by comparing, with the aid of digital maps, pre and post Baron Haussmann’s endeavor to undertake one of the largest urban regeneration projects since the burning of London in 1666 which you can read more on in Aoife’s first installment.

Haussmann’s radical project included such things as an expanded sewer system, gas lighting for the streets, a uniform facade for the city’s building, construction of new parks and the division of Paris into arrondissements. However, for the purpose of this blog, I shall focus in on the construction and reorganization of boulevards across the city. “Think about Paris and sooner, rather than later, the word boulevard will come to mind. Boulevards – the word itself, perhaps as much as their physical reality – define this city. The word conjures up images of broad tree-lined sidewalks, elegant building, attractive stores, corner cafes, crowds of people, and the warm light of street lamps.” (Jacobs, McDonald & Rofé, 2003)

Image of The Avenue des Champs-Élysées which is a boulevard in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, 1.9 kilometres long and 70 metres wide, which runs between the Place de la Concorde and the Place Charles de Gaulle, where the Arc de Triomphe is located. The grandeur and width of this boulevards and nicely complimented by the manicured trees and large open spaces at the end of each boulevard.

Fig. 1: A Plan of the City of Paris, 1800. Source here.

As seen in the map above, the streets used to be narrow, chaotic and disorderly, leading to everywhere and nowhere. The tight confines of medieval Paris were hindering the city’s potential for growth and its desire to transform into a well-organized, modern urban hotspot. Modernity’s urban signature was seen as one of order, power and transformation. For Napolean III, that is exactly what he wanted to gain over the Parisiennes: control; boulevards were a physical representation of just that. Although many people at the time argued that the sole motivation for the construction of these boulevards was a strategic move by Napolean III and his military, Paris urban historian Patrice de Moncan wrote: “To see the works created by Haussmann and Napoleon III only from the perspective of their strategic value is very reductive. His desire to make Paris, the economic capital of France, a more open, more healthy city, not only for the upper classes but also for the workers, cannot be denied, and should be recognised as the primary motivation”. They were the places to see and be seen; lined with opulent boutiques, café bistros and hand-manicured trees. They were places where affluence could be flaunted and admired, and where, thanks to the new water and sewer systems, citizens could show off their new found cleanliness.

            
Fig. 2: Snippet of Map of Paris, 1800. Source here.         Fig. 3: Snippet of Map of Paris, 1889. Source here.

Even though it’s quite hard to believe, Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 are of the same location in Paris, just west of the Ile de la Cité. This contrast between the 1800 and 1889 maps illustrates the extent of Haussmann’s transformation of the city’s street-scape over a mere time-span of twenty years with examples such as Boulevard du Temple and Boulevard de Ménilmontant shown in Fig. 3.

 
Fig. 4: “Before Haussmann” Map of Ile de la Cité,   Fig. 5: “After Haussmann” Map of Ile de la Cité,
Paris. Source here.                                                  Paris. Source here.

Another visually striking contrast of pre and post regeneration evident on the Ile de la Cité with the development of wide, traverse roadways across the island joining the two bank of the Seine.

The revamping of Paris’ streets into boulevard was, I believe, an integral part of bringing the City of Light out of the Dark Ages and into the Modern era.

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Thanks for tuning in this week and sticking with me! Hope you’ve enjoyed my very first blog post, as well as the others!
—
Jennifer E. | 112302041

Planning on doing some offline perusing? Download the ePub!

References

Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3 – Old Maps of Paris. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.oldmapsofparis.com/. [Accessed 15 October 14].
Fig. 4, Fig. 5 – Ile de la Cité transformation. [ONLINE] Available at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paris-cite-haussmann.jpg. [Accessed 15 October 14].
Jacobs A. B, McDonald E. and Rofé Y, 2003. The Boulevard Book: History, Evolution, Design of Multiway Boulevards. MIT Press.
de Moncan P., 2002. Le Paris d’Haussmann, p. 34.
General information on Haussmann’s plans. Available at: http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/architecture/Haussmanns-Architectural-Paris.html [Accessed 12 October 14].